Tony Fabrizio

Anthony Fabrizio (born 1960) is an American Republican pollster and strategist. He is the principal in Fabrizio, Lee & Associates, and was the pollster for Donald Trump's fall 2016 Presidential campaign, former Senator Bob Dole's 1996 Presidential campaign, U.S. Senator Rand Paul's U.S. Senate and 2016 Presidential campaign, and former Governor Rick Perry's 2012 Presidential campaign, among others. He also served as a pollster for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in the 2014 midterm elections.

Tony Fabrizio
Born
Anthony Fabrizio

1960 (age 60–61)
New York City, New York, U.S.
Political partyRepublican
WebsiteOfficial website

Fabrizio is a silent owner of Multi Media Services Corporation (MMSC).[1] MMSC was the biggest vendor to the top pro-Trump Rebuilding America Now super PAC.[1]

In February 2018, he was questioned by Robert Mueller's Special Counsel team about polling data shared with pro-Kremlin pro-Putin individuals.

Career

In 1996, Fabrizio served as chief pollster and strategist to Bob Dole's Presidential campaign, which was unsuccessful. He has also worked for several dozen U.S. Senators and Governors, including Tim Pawlenty, Rand Paul, Bill Cassidy, David Perdue, among others. During 2012 and 2013, he received $250,000 for his efforts to assist Paul Manafort's pro-Russia, pro-Kremlin, pro-Putin efforts in Ukraine.[2][lower-alpha 1] He was also pollster for the Republican Governor Association's campaign to reelect Governor Scott Walker in 2014. He also served as the pollster for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's independent campaign effort that helped elect six new Republican Senators and re-elect three Republican incumbents in 2014.[10][11]

In 2015, he served as pollster for successful gubernatorial candidate Matt Bevin in Kentucky, and that year also aided Rand Paul's Presidential campaign.[11] Following Paul's exit from the race, Fabrizio was hired by the campaign of Donald Trump as Chief Pollster, joining fellow pollsters Kellyanne Conway and John McLaughlin (Fabrizio's former business partner).[12][13] Fabrizio's hiring as Trump's pollster came as a surprise to political analysts, pointing to Trump's past opposition to pollsters, with Trump stating in an interview with Chuck Todd on Meet the Press, "I don't have pollsters. I don't want to waste money on pollsters. I don't want to be unreal. I want to be me. I have to be me."[12] He and Conway were among those representing the Trump campaign at Harvard University's post-election roundtable.[14] Fabrizio is also longtime friends with former Trump advisers Paul Manafort and Roger Stone.[15]

In October 2016, it was reported in multiple media outlets that Trump was refusing to pay for Fabrizio's polling services, with the Federal Election Commission report showing that Trump's campaign was disputing nearly $767,000 that Fabrizio's firm said it was still owed for polling.[16][17]

Fabrizio has additionally worked with clients including Visa, Hewlett-Packard, Bank of America, AOL/Time-Warner, FedEx, Pfizer, and Harrah's, among others.[10]

Mueller's Special Counsel investigations

In February 2018, Fabrizio was questioned by Robert Meuller's team to determine if voter information and polling data was shared with the Kremlin during the 2016 United States elections.[2] On January 8, 2019, Paul Manafort's attorneys failed to redact and inadvertently revealed that Mueller's prosecutors knew that 2016 voter information and polling data had been shared with pro-Kremlin Ukrainians through Konstantin Kilimnik to Serhiy Lyovochkin and Rinat Akhmetov.[2][18][19]

Personal life

Fabrizio is a Brooklyn native, and grew up on Long Island in New York.[12]

See also

Notes
  1. From 2011 to 2013 with liaison to Serhiy Lyovochkin, Alan Friedman, Eckart Sager, who was a one time CNN producer, Rick Gates, Paul Manafort, and Manafort's senior aide Konstantin Kilimnik devised a strategy to discredit Yulia Tymoshenko along with Hillary Clinton who had been an outspoken critic of pro-Russia, pro-Kremlin, and pro-Putin supporters in Ukraine.[3] Manafort's Global Endeavour Inc., a St. Vincent and Grenadines based consulting and lobbying company, his Lucicle Consultants Ltd., a Cyprus based consulting company, and three other of his companies were hired to provide support to Viktor Yanukovych and his Party of Regions.[4][5][6] This strategy included: creating a fake think tank in Vienna, the Center for the Study of Former Soviet Socialist Republics (CXSSR), to support Yanukovich and his Party of Regions; using a social media blitz with Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook, and altering the Google's search stack to disseminate articles and videos that undermine opponents of the Party of Regions and Yanukovich in Europe and the United States; rewriting wikipedia articles to smear Yanukovich opponents especially Tymoshenko; and using Breitbart News, RedState, and an article in the Wall Street Journal to discredit the Obama State Department and the United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.[3] Alan Friedman, who had not registered as a foreign agent in the United States, told Kostyantyn Gryshchenko that Friedman, who often wrote using the pen name Matthew Lina, published dozens of positive stories about the Party of Regions and Yanukovich and ensured that these were disseminated to over 2,000 publications and placed at the top of Google search stacks.[3] Known as the Tymoshenko Files, Friedman sent Manafort a highly confidential two page letter detailing Friedman's efforts and that Friedman would claim to be Inna Bohoslovska to ghost pen articles on her behalf.[3] In October 2012 after Hillary Clinton had supported Tymoshenko, Brietbart News released an article calling Hillary Clinton a “neo-Nazi Frankenstein”.[3][7][8][9]

References
  1. Christina Wilkie (March 10, 2019). "A mysterious payment to Paul Manafort's lawyer reveals a hidden chapter of Trump's 2016 presidential campaign". CNBC.com. Retrieved March 20, 2019.
  2. Murray, Sara; Polantz, Katelyn (January 10, 2019). "Robert Mueller met with President Donald Trump's pollster". CNN. Retrieved January 10, 2019 – via MSN News.
  3. Harding, Luke (April 5, 2018). "Former Trump aide approved 'black ops' to help Ukraine president: Paul Manafort authorised secret media operation that sought to discredit key opponent of then Ukrainian president". The Guardian. Retrieved January 10, 2019.
  4. Leopold, Jason; Cormier, Anthony (October 29, 2017). "These 13 Wire Transfers Are A Focus Of The FBI Probe Into Paul Manafort: BuzzFeed News has learned of a series of wire transfers, made by companies linked to Donald Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, that federal officials deemed suspicious. Many of the wires went from offshore companies controlled by Manafort to American businesses". BuzzFeed. Retrieved January 10, 2019.
  5. Moore, Jack (October 29, 2017). "Robert Mueller Probe: Manafort 'Suspicious' Wire Transfers Focus of FBI Trump-Russia Investigation". Newsweek. Retrieved January 10, 2019.
  6. Baker, Stephanie; Voreacos, David (October 31, 2017). "Manafort's Deals With Russian Oligarch Hint at Financial Web". Bloomberg News. Retrieved January 10, 2019.
  7. Martin, Andrew; Baker, Stephanie (September 14, 2018). "Manafort Had a Deep Bag of Political Tricks for His Ukrainian Client". Bloomberg News. Retrieved January 10, 2019.
  8. Gearan, Anne (September 14, 2018). "'Bada bing bada boom': Paul Manafort's attempt to smear a jailed Ukrainian politician". Washington Post. Retrieved January 10, 2019.
  9. Unger, Craig (August 14, 2018). "Chapter 5 Honey Trap". House of Trump, House of Putin: The Untold Story of Donald Trump and the Russian Mafia. Dutton. ISBN 978-1524743505.
  10. "Arena Profile: Tony Fabrizio". Politico. Retrieved 2016-12-02.
  11. "Tony Fabrizio - Fabrizio, Lee & Associates". Fabrizio, Lee & Associates. Retrieved 2016-12-02.
  12. Caputo, Marc (2016-05-16). "After resisting for months, Trump hires top pollster". Politico. Retrieved 2016-12-02.
  13. Acosta, Jim (2016-05-17). "Donald Trump hires pollster Tony Fabrizio". CNN. Retrieved 2016-12-02.
  14. "Roundtable Discussion: The General Election," accessed thru http://iop.harvard.edu/get-inspired/campaign-managers-conference/campaign-president-managers-look-2016
  15. Jaffe, Alexandra (2016-05-16). "Donald Trump Hires Pollster After Previously Attacking Them". NBC News. Retrieved 2016-12-02.
  16. Gold, Matea (2016-10-31). "Trump refusing to pay campaign pollster". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 2016-12-03.
  17. Confessore, Nicholas (2016-11-01). "Latest Unpaid Trump Vendor Is His Own Pollster, Filing Shows". The New York Times. Retrieved 2016-12-03.
  18. LaFraniere, Sharon; Vogel, Kenneth P.; Haberman, Maggie (January 8, 2019). "Manafort Accused of Sharing Trump Polling Data With Russian Associate". New York Times. Retrieved January 10, 2019.
  19. Tillman, Zoe (January 8, 2019). "Paul Manafort's Lawyers Tried To Redact A Court Filing About Whether Manafort Lied To Investigators. It Didn't Work: Manafort's lawyers filed a response to allegations by special counsel Robert Mueller's office that he lied after signing a plea deal. They tried to keep certain sections secret by redacting, but it was done incorrectly, making the information public". BuzzFeed News. Retrieved January 10, 2019.
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